Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Symphony no. 5 in D major, "Reformation", Op.107

In the second of his Mozart concerto appearances with the Philharmonia, Mao Fujita plays the heavenly Piano Concerto no. 25 in C major. 

Series of a composer's relatively neglected symphonies, or other genre, face one key test. Do the works emerge with greater stature than before?

Must individual items in a concert programme form a coherent whole? Not necessarily, but here a Wagner overture, a cello concerto inspired by environmental concerns and an early Mendelssohn symphony don't justify the LPO's marketing.

Partnering Augustin Hadelich in the Sibelius Violin Concerto and directing two works by Mendelssohn, Andrés Orozco-Estrada doesn't quite temper acoustic problems associated with the ecclesiastical venue.

Jörg Widmann proved again to be a true musical polymath,  one of the very few active today.

In an all-Mendelssohn programme, Pablo Heras-Casado led the orchestra in detailed and original interpretations, with a strong performance from soloist Isabelle Faust.

An outstanding concert, with impressive performers that love to play together and had lots of time to rehearse

The chemistry between Muti and the CSO continues to sizzle in a Rossini overture, a Mendelssohn symphony, and a Beethoven piano concerto with Yefim Bronfman.

Dignified and intellectual Wagner, Schumann and Mendelssohn with the Hong Kong Phil.

This Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert was titled simply "Degenerate" and designed to showcase works that were – or would have been – banned for their so-called "degeneracy" during the Third Reich, either for the perceived "radical" nature of the music or for the simple fact the composer was Jewish.

Mendelssohn developed quite a soft spot for Birmingham, even producing a sketched portrait of the city. At the centre of this portrait stands Joseph Hansom's splendid neoclassical Town Hall where Mendelssohn conducted several of his own works, most famously the première of his great oratorio, Elijah.

Pairing Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony, the so-called “Reformation Symphony”, and Bruckner’s Third Mass in F minor seemed to me at first a rather novel, but very interesting idea. It was perhaps not the most daring of programmes, but certainly a very interesting one, picking a symphony steeped in Protestant tradition and then a Catholic mass.

Finland’s Einojuhani Rautavaara is no stranger to the SCO, who premièred his Autumn Gardens in 1999; nor to this concert’s conductor, fellow Finn John Storgårds, who recorded a disc of his works earlier this year. Although not a world première, this was a UK first performance of his Into the Heart of Light for string orchestra.

The first of the two Proms by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra featured an all-Mendelssohn programme. The orchestra has a long tradition of performing Mendelssohn’s music, as he was their Music Director from 1835 until his early death in 1847.

Northern Sinfonia’s concert in Hall One of the Sage Gateshead last night challenged the audience to put aside our normal preconceptions, to see well-known composers in a slightly different light. Mendelssohn’s “Fifth” Symphony was actually the second one he wrote – at the age of only 20 – but it was not published until after his death and is not played as much as his other symphonies.